Ghostly Clues
by GhostAnn
Summary: The death of a Navy Officer's girl brings the NCIS team to the strange town of Amity Park. Is the whole town in on the tourist trap idea of ghosts or is there some truth to the story Danny Fenton told them of a ghost girl matching their dead victim?
1. Prologue

**Ghostly Clues**

 **Prologue** :

Merry McColan sat on a park bench looking up at the night sky. She was nervous. She moved again for the umpteenth time in her life just a few months ago. Right now, she was just trying to find a little peace. Her family was most definitely settling in for the night. There was no doubt in her mind that her father was watching the 10 o'clock news, and that her little brother was deep in sleep.

A sigh escaped her as she rocked slightly back and forth on a chain swing. Looking up to the night sky and taking in a cold breath she pulled her jacket closer to her. She usually came to the park about this time with a silent hope. She knew that he brought a lot of them out here, probably because it was more open, and meant less destruction.

So far the night had been overall uneventful. Not too noisy but not really quiet ether. The sound of urban life never really slipping away. Standing up she let out a breath and brushed her skirt off. "Okay..." Looking back down the dark street toward her house Mary debated on whether she was ready to go home or not.

It was dark, and she wasn't stupid, she knew just because it was quiet that it didn't mean that there was nothing amiss. Still, looking the other way, she paused, thinking it probably wouldn't hurt to throw in a little walk. A few blocks later she found herself outside of a very strange house. It was two stories' high with what kind of looked like a UFO stuck to the top of it. She smirked. His whole family was kind of cute.

Walking up to the window she could see them sitting on the living room couch. It looked like he was getting lectured again. She felt sorry for him, the boy, Danny. She wondered if there was anything she could to do for him. She couldn't see how though. They weren't even in the same class.

He was a sophomore, and she was a freshman. It wasn't impossible to be friends with someone in a different class... but he was also... an outcast, and she was more of a lone wolf. If there was anything he needed his two friends and his sister usually had it covered. Yet, she still found herself in situations like this. Wishing there was more she could do. Wishing she had something- anything to give. It was like she was becoming some kind of stalker.

She couldn't help it though. Everything about him was amazing. What he did. How he moved. She knew though, that it was impossible. He was already taken. She smiled softly. Oh well. It was kind of sad but she'd get over it.

She silently hoped to be around whenever that fell through- so she could move in. Well, if it fell through. It probably wouldn't though. It was like those two were made for each other. That Sam girl and him. The very idea that they would fight and she could come in and somehow the two of them, she and him, could get together was such a dark and selfish desire that Merry forced it deep under thoughts of the next day.

The school was having a pep-rally. Rumor was that the previous years was unforgettable. She heard it was good and bad. The spirit week was especially bad but the rally itself had brought the entirety of the schools pep up. Apparently his sister was the one who'd done it, with some kind of speech.

Yet, she'd refused to do so this year. Merry didn't understand, the girl- Jazz was her name- always had her nose in a book, and was top of the school, she didn't think even a senior had to work that hard.

The lights of the house went off while she'd been thinking. With a blink she stood. She figured that was enough of creepy stalker mode. She shook her head staring at her feet. Her heart tight with a bitter feel. Like, she was squeezing it. Just to keep herself from screaming, she guessed. Letting out another deep sigh she looked up to the starry sky, stuffed her hands deep into her pockets and shuffled down the street. She figured she had better get back home before her parents discovered she was gone.

A Street light flickered as the girl made her way away from Fenton Works.

No one in Amity Park ever saw Merry McColan alive again.

* * *

 _AN:_

 _Okay... so I'm not starting a new story... this is kind of a one shot idea that struck me about a year ago and I have it fully written out. Not counting this_ prologue _it's only two maybe three chapters- depending on how I decide to brake it up. As of right now that's all there is to this story... I'll post the first chapter on Monday._


	2. File 1

_AN:_

 _Good morning_ _. Here's chapter two as promised. :)  
Hope you like it. Have a good week!_

* * *

 **Ghostly Clues**

 **File 1:**

Ducky sighed as he tilted the mostly decomposed head to the side. "You are so young." He leaned over studding her face. "You barely got the chance to see the world my dear. I am sorry. We are going to find out who did this to you. Do not worry about that, you were lucky, in away. The team who has picked up your case is- in my opinion- the best."

The doors to the autopsy room flew open as a tall man strode in a manila envelope clutched in his right hand. "What do we have Ducky?"

"Oh, Jethro." The coroner stood razing his arm in greeting as he walked around the table toward his friend Leroy Jethro Gibbs. "It is a bit strange. She has multiple broken bones, but it seams she attained them postmortem, as if she was dropped from a high place. Other than that and being dead she seems to be perfectly healthy..."

"Ducky."

The medic crossed his arms as it seemed the man before him was doubting that he was telling the whole story. "Sorry Jethro. You caught me a bit early in the process. I just do not have enough to say. She is a mystery at this point. Though, I have yet to examine her insides, the answers you seek may be revealed there."

The marine nodded staring down at the girl, his face hard. Noticing his friends silent brooding Ducky attempted to lighten the mood. "Well, we do know who she is." Ducky said. "That's a start. Don't let the fact that she is a little girl throw you off."

Jethro looked down at the file, the small picture of 14-year-old Merry smiling up at him. "That's not the problem." He denied. "I just want to know how she ended up in that supply truck."

"That field I believe belongs to someone else." Ducky said picking up his scalpel as he turned to his work. "I will let you know if I find anything significant. You find the bastard that did this to Merry."

Gibbs walked out of the room a promise in his stride.

* * *

"McGee!" Leroy Jethro Gibbs barked as he walked into the office. The only one there at the moment, hunched over his computer, was Timothy "Tim" McGee. "Report!"

"Yes boss!" McGee quickly stood up at attention holding the little remote that pushed through the images on the projection screen. "Merry Janine McColan, age 14, daughter of Sargent Peter M. McColan who was honorably discharged about 4 months'; he had moved his family to a small town in Illinois called Amity Park- that's where the girl had last been seen- she's been on the Amber Alert for about 2 weeks, and apparently she just disappeared without a trace." McGee took a breath. "The parents said she went to bed about 9:30 PM or 21:30 and the next morning when they went to wake her for school she was gone. They immediately called the police."

"Okay. Good. Let's go."

"Go?"

"To Amity Park." Gibbs said grabbing his jacket.

"What- what about the others-

Gibbs gave the young man a pointed look. "Go get them McGee."

"Right!" McGee ran off to do just that.

* * *

"Danny!" Samantha "Sam" Manson yelled as she watched the ghost boy of Amity Park crash into a display of sunglasses.

Behind her gasping for breath as he ran was Tucker Folly. "Who did he cross this time?"

"GET OUT!" An angry disembodied voice trembled through the air. The mall, which was usually lively at this time of day, was deserted. The two teens took defensive stances around the pile of sunglasses, looking for the unfriendly ghost.

The pile shifted and the ghostly teen hero Danny Phantom crawled out. Now sporting a pair of neon green frames the boy blinked couple of times trying to figure out why his vision was obscured. "Nice shades." Tucker said giving his friend a wink.

Danny took off the glasses as he rolled his eyes. "Thanks Tuck. Glad to know I'm rocking the style."

"Come on stop joking around you two! We kind of have a crazy ghost on the loose! Or did you forget?"

Danny looked up to the skylight his face serious. "How could I forget?" Rubbing his head he frowned. "Is it just me or have there been a lot more new ghost lately?"

Danny never got an answer as the ghost materialized above the group screeching. "Get out!" Her outfit looked like a silky set of pajamas as it whipped in a ghostly energy. Angry red eyes blazed and flashed as she took a dive down at him. "Get out!"

"I think..." Danny started, tossing the glasses aside, as he dodged the attack. Finding himself behind the ghost and firing a sharp ecto blast at her back. "The phrase is 'far out' and it's out dated- and so is your style."

The dark blue haired ghost glared up at him pale lips curling over sharp teeth. "I can't stand you! You're trespassing on my turf!"

Danny held up his hands floating back a bit supersized. "Whoa? Wait your turf?"

"Yes!"

"Why are you complaining now? I've been to the mall loads of times before today!"

The ghost growled. "This is my haunt! This is my place! You disturbed my sleep and rubbed your energy all over this place!"

"Well that was a gross mental image." Sam said blandly crossing her arms.

"You shouldn't be here! Why are you here?!"

"Because I live here!" Danny yelled, then stopped. "Well sort of... and besides. A mall is kind of a crappy haunt... Not as bad as haunting boxes but..."

"You don't know anything about it!" She blasted Danny back sending him flying into a message board.

"Dang it!" The young hero reached up to remove the sheet of paper that had fallen onto his head. Merry McColan grinned back at him. The word Missing in bold font at the top of the page. He frowned. He'd helped look for the girl when she first came up missing, worried that she may have fallen unaware into some ghost's crack pot plot.

He nor the town found any trace of her though, which only made him feel more uneasy about the whole thing. She wasn't a ghost, there was no way she could have just up and vanished into thin air without a trace. A sharp cry brought him back to the present as he looked up to see the ghost was seconds away from digging her claws into him. He barely had time to take a breath when the ghost howled in rage suddenly getting sucked back and to the side away from him. Caught by a blue light Danny and his friends watched wide eyed as she screamed disappearing into a silver thermos. "NOOOO! You can't! You don't understand! This is my place! Mine!"

The lid was capped and Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton let out a whoosh of relieved air. "That seemed kind of close."

The ghost boy and the two sophomore kids stared at her. "What?"

"You used the thermos." Tucker said.

"And you didn't suck me into it!" Danny said.

Jazz blushed. "Well I've been practicing my aim."

"Good job." Sam said with a smile.

"Yeah. Nice save." Danny said going invisible. "Now, let's get out of here before the cops arrive." As he said this the sound of sirens reached their ears.

"Good idea." Tucker said leading the group out.

* * *

Gibbs walked into the police department of Amity Park Tony right behind him. He rose a brow at the large officer asleep behind the desk as he walked in.

"Doesn't look like they have a very good core here..." Tony loudly whispered to his boss.

Slamming his badge onto the counter Gibbs ignored Tony and startled the officer awake. "Jethro Gibbs, NCIS, we're here to investigate the murder of Merry McColan."

"What?" The man blinked at the marine in front of him.

Gibbs glared. "Where is the chief of police?"

The man glanced between Gibbs badge and the agents face before stuttering as he fumbled for the phone. "Ju-just a moment sir." The man said.

As the man put the phone to his ear the station erupted to life. "Where was it!?" One of the officers asked as they rushed toward the exit.

"The mall!" Another voice hollered.

"Again!?" Another exasperated sounding officer asked as they ran by.

"What's up? The mall on fire?" Tony asked getting a warning glare from Gibbs.

Gibbs watched quietly as the entire station, it seemed, flooded passed them. "Um..." The man hung up the phone as he looked up at them. "The Chief is in his office, it's down the hall to the left... you can go in if you would like."

"What was that about?" Gibbs asked instead still looking to the door as he tucked his badge into his blazer pocket.

"Oh..." The man said looking nervous. "Just... a... uh... an average... day to day disturbances..."

"Day to day?" Tony asked. "You make it sound like this happens every day."

The man shrugged his head going down as he pretended to get to work on his computer. "It... is just this town... the chief can explain..."

"We'll ask him then." Gibbs said walking down the hall. "Come on Dinozzo."

"Right behind you, boss."

* * *

 _AN:_

 _Don't really have much to say... It's not easy meshing Danny's world with anything created to be more along the lines of reality. NCIS is set in our world and fallows a lot of our laws and logic. Danny Phantom on the other hand... lets just say I vaguely remember pulling out my hair as I tried to think of a logical way to get these two groups into the same area let alone on the same page._

 _Writing Gibbs is both frustrating and fun. I am not as confident in writing NCIS... it's no were near as forgiving as the DP universe. Still I hope you all are enjoying this story and I'll post the next chapter on Wednesday._

 _Let me know what you think. What do you think happened to Merry? (I know I haven't given many clues yet...)  
Just to clarify, because I don't remember if I ever go into detail about it, they found Merry in an Navy Supply Truck as it tried to come onto the teams base. The truck bead did not have a cover on it. _


	3. File 2

_AN:_

 _This chapter is kind of long so if you like to read chapters in one setting like I do I felt it was only fair to let you know that this chapter is over 4000 words long._

 _With that... please enjoy! :)_

* * *

 **Ghostly C lues**

 **File 2:**

"Like we said before. That's all we know…" Mrs. McColan said wringing her hands together anxiously as her voice shook. She was sitting across from Special Agent Ziva David, who was doing some follow up questions as Tony searched the girl's room. Gibbs and Tim were out scouting the surrounding area for possible places the girl could have been picked up. "We caught her sneaking out a couple times… we grounded her and she promised never to do it again." It was clear that the news of her daughter's death hit her hard. Hands still shaking she curled them into her sea-foam colored skirt.

"Though knowing her she probably figured one last outing wouldn't hurt." Mr. McColan said gruffly his grey eyes distant as his right hand gripped the fabric of his jeans tightly. The pull of fabric reviled a glint of metal showing just above his shoe. Ziva noted that the man had had a limp as he walked in. An amputee it seemed.

The experienced agent tried not to let it get to her. Tried not to imagine what kind of turmoil the man must be suffering to learn to live with a new limb only to have another piece of his life wrenched away, while still in recovery no less. It shouldn't have been hard after all their cases and her past, but it was something she found surprisingly difficult not to ponder. She couldn't let herself feel too much for the family, after all it was a rule, one of about a billion of Gibbs unlisted rules, to never get personally involved in a case. Though, she mused, Abby would say that there was nothing wrong with sympathizing, as long as it didn't blind you to the evidence. The Israelite assumed it was one of Abby's own rules.

So deciding not to dwell on the tragedy Ziva simply nodded with understanding.

The mother just shook her head, as it fell, her face falling behind her auburn hair in despair. Her husband's arm was resting protectively over her shoulders and tightened his grip on her left shoulder squeezing lightly. It was the least he could do to keep her grounded. "Do you have any idea yet what happened to her?" The man asked his jaw tight as he held back his no doubt turbulent emotions.

Ziva shook her head. "I'm sorry but I can't disclose any information, but trust me when I say we will do all we can to find out what happened to your daughter."

"Yo." Tony said walking down the stairs a small book in his latex gloved hands. "I found Merry's diary. It may help us figure out what she did when she snuck out."

The grieving mother took in a shuddering breath. "If it will help."

"It will." Ziva said then stood wiping her hands on her slacks before she held out her hand to the two. "Thank you for your cooperation."

Mr. McColan pushed himself to stand and took her hand. "Thank you. Thank you for taking my daughters case."

* * *

 _The following Day_ :

Danny Fenton was walking with his friends down the street laughing at some joke Tucker just told when his ghost sense went off. His laughter stopped immediately and he looked around seriously for the source. His legs were bent ready to send him sprawling into a nearby bush. The area was calm though and the few people who were around weren't startled in the least. "Where's the ghost?" Sam finally asked.

Danny relaxed a bit. "I guess they were just flying by." He stepped into the bush they'd stopped in front of, dropping out of sight, and after a flash floated out as Phantom. "Better safe than sorry though. I'm going to do a quick sweep to see if I can't find it."

"Sound's good." Sam nodded in approval. "We'll meet up with you at the Nasty Burger for homework later."

"We'll see you there man. Call us if it gets dicey." Tucker waved as he and Sam started walking away, certain their friend could handle things.

Danny hovered slowly through the air following the faint feel of the ghost into an alleyway. There he saw a girl curled in the corner shivering. "Can I help you?" He asked, his guard up. He'd been played a fool one too many times by ghost pretending to be in a state of distress to just assume that she was seriously upset.

The figure flinched their glowing shoulders tensing. As the ghost turned its body to look to him their eyes widened. It was a girl, the ghost, about his age with pail bluish gray skin, grey hair, and hollow yellow eyes. Danny started, his breath catching as he took in her features. He'd know that face anywhere. Her image was all over the TV. She'd gone missing nearly a month ago. "Merry?" He whispered. There was a hollow cry as her face twisted with fear and pain, then before his eyes she vanished. He couldn't even fill her presence anymore. He spun around, the alleyway feeling suddenly frightening. "Merry!" He cried hoping she'd return and talk to him. Tell him what had happened. The more popular consciences at school was that she had ran away.

Seeing her as a ghost and remembering the feeling that closed in on Danny's stomach when he heard that scream told him that that wasn't the case.

He rushed home, shifting back to Fenton as he landed in the bushes outside of his house. He pulled out his cellphone and dialed his friends. "Guys. You'll never guess who I just saw." He felt his voice tremble in his throat his body shaking uncontrollably.

Outside of the Cheese King he'd never met a ghost that he associated with a previously living person and he only barely made that connection. Having never met the man in life. Sure, there were stories of Poindexter but the association of a student from the 50's was so distant he hadn't ever wrapped his head around that one. So Poindexter was just a ghost, nothing more. This was the first ghost he'd encountered that he'd known- well that he'd at least been somewhat aware of- in life. It shook him to the core. He pushed open the door as he spoke. "Merry McColan."

"What about her?"

Danny's head snapped up at the unfamiliar and gruff voice. His eyes met steel gray. "Wha- W-who are you?" Danny stuttered.

The man grabbed the phone from Danny's hand and spoke into it. "He'll call you back."

"Hey!" Danny reached for his phone as the man snapped it shut, effectively ending the call. "That was important!" Danny snapped.

"Danny." Maddie said and Danny glanced behind the man to see his Mother and Father sitting on the couch looking worried. Another man standing by the coffee table looked to him with scrutiny. "Be a dear and come sit down."

Danny frowned. His mother was talking slowly her smile forced. Not sure if he was in trouble or if these men were upsetting her he decided it was best to listen. The man that took his phone glanced at it an irritated look on his face. Sighing the older man grabbed Danny's shoulder and wordlessly placed the phone in the boy's hand. Danny took it uncertain and sat down next to his mother. She placed a hand around his shoulder, draping her arm across his back, and his confusion grew. "What's going on?" He asked fiddling with the phone in his hands, letting it roll unpredictably in his fingers. "Am I in trouble?"

"No sweetie." Maddie said squeezing his shoulder.

"Then…" Danny looked at the man with the scary eyes and the pepper white hair. He felt a shiver run through him as he let out an involuntary noise he could only describe as a squeak of fear. Danny wasn't sure he wanted to get to know this man.

The stranger's eyes narrowed slightly. "I am Special Agent Jethro Gibbs. This here is Special Agent Tony DiNozzo. My team and I are here investigating the disappearance of Merry McColan."

Danny felt a twinge of relief but forced it behind a sliver of disappointment. "Special agent? Like FBI?" Was he really getting scared by some government lackey? He wasn't even a ghost hunter (thankfully) from the sounds of it.

The other man, Agent DiNozzo seemed to tense at this. "Actually NCIS." Danny blinked at the man incomprehensibly. Said man sighed in response. Ruffling his immaculate hair, the man straightened. "No one ever knows who we are." Nodding to Agent Gibbs the man continued. "We are a part of the Navy Criminal Investigation Service. We investigate deaths related to Navy officers."

Danny blinked again his face openly confused. "Merry was in the Navy?"

The brown haired man's body fidgeted slightly as he held back a laugh. "No." Agent Gibbs said seriously, stilling Tony's mirth with a glance. "Her father is though." Plus, she was found in a Navy supply truck but that was need to know.

"I see." Danny said. "So you came to find out who killed her?"

Agent Gibbs features went stone hard immediately. Danny was startled and shrunk into the couch surprised that the stern man could manage looking more intimidating and so quickly too. The sense that a ticked off tiger was standing before him with its fangs bared flashed through his mind momentarily as the man spoke. "That's not public knowledge." He said a growl in his voice and Danny swallowed roughly. Silently he wished he was dealing with Skulker at the moment instead of this man. "How do you know she's dead?" He demanded leaning forward. Danny swore he saw a raging aura of fire towering over the man. Radiating the sense that he was ready to pounce.

Maddie and Jack looked to Danny surprised. "Danny?" His mother's voice was quiet with worry. His father's was contorted with confusion.

"I…" Danny shivered. It hurt to think his mother might be questioning his innocence. "I saw her ghost today." The truth slipped out. Danny couldn't lie, he was too thrown by this strange agent. It made no sense, he'd been telling white lies for months. Dodging the GIW for nearly just as long. Yet, he felt that if Gibbs caught the lie the metaphorical sense that he'd swallow him whole might become a reality. Not only that Danny didn't want to keep his encounter with the girl a secret. Not in the least.

Scarily enough the man's face only got harder. "You expect me to believe that?"

"You saw a ghost!" Jack asked excited. "Where!? When? Was it fully corporal or was it more like a shadow?"

"Later." Gibbs snapped effectively quieting the excitable man. Jack didn't even pout he just snapped his jaw shut and nodded an affirmative.

Shocked by the feat Danny swallowed, he was trapped, the frightening glare holding him in place. Tony silently pitied the kid, just a bit, even if he didn't believe him. It wasn't easy being under Gibbs scrutiny. "I- in an alleyway a few blocks away from the mall on the way home. She was crying- I- she was crying..." Danny looked down realizing that was what she was doing. "I asked her if she needed help." He swallowed licking his lips as he glanced up to see those silver eyes boring into him. He looked down at the cellphone now resting in his lap repressing a shudder. Though from the glare or the memory he wasn't sure. "I –I recognized her face when she looked at me. She looked so scared." His body was trembling uncontrollably now. "She didn't say anything-she just screamed." His fist tightened around his pant legs.

"Danny?" Maddie asked worry lacing her voice as he went silent.

Danny shook his head. "She screamed and then she just... vanished." He looked up his gaze meeting the man before him. His eyes were wide and his brow knitted together in worry and confusion. "I've never had a ghost do that to me before…"

"I don't believe this." Agent DiNozzo said sounding irritated as he mumbled to himself. Something about something in the water. Gibbs ignored his partner and stared Danny down.

Danny stared right back the worry morphing in to a silent challenge. His eyes as steady as his body wasn't, Gibbs couldn't help but feel a bit impressed. It wasn't everyday someone could counter him in a stare down. He saw a resolve in the kids eyes that screamed honesty. "Look." Gibbs said sliding further back into the lazy chair across from Danny the angry tiger vanishing in a flash. The change in the man's mood didn't escape the notice of DiNozzo who looked on, his brow razing slightly, with surprise. "I know this town has a thing for hauntings- but you can't really expect me to believe you saw this girls ghost."

"Why not?" Danny asked his voice only cracking slightly. "I see ghost every day. The school's a hot spot you know."

"That's true. In fact, me and Mad's have been looking into it as of late." Jack Fenton nodded a hand on his arm from Maddie stopped him before he went on a tangent that would certainly irritate their guest.

Gibbs spared the married couple a momentary glance, daring them to say more. Turning his attention back to their son he sat forward and pressed. "You see ghost every day?" Danny nodded. "How do you normally react to their presence?"

"Uh…" Danny rubbed the back of his neck with his hand unable to look directly at him. "I usually run away…" The lie was so habitual it slipped out naturally but Danny still had to avert his eyes, worried this stranger would still see through it.

"Then how could you have gotten close enough to tell this thing- whatever you saw- was a ghost, let alone that it was Merry?" Gibbs pressed.

"I…" Danny swallowed. "I didn't… I didn't think she was a ghost at first." He swallowed, looking down again, hearing how weak the lie sounded in his own ears but there was no way he could say he sensed her. That he originally thought she was a threat. Actually, he frowned a moment, wondering if she in fact was a threat. He had very little experience with newly formed ghost. Those steely gray eyes drug him out of his worry's and bit out all the courage he had to continue the fib.

Jack nodded seaming to accept it. "A fully corporal phantom can trick the eyes."

Gibbs watched as the boy in front of him bit his lip nervously. The kids right hand was rubbing at the back of his neck. ' _He's lying._ ' Gibbs decided.

"It's a nice story." The agent pressed. "But unfortunately ghost don't exist."

Fist tightening Danny glared at the man. Feeling insulted for some reason. "I know what I saw!"

The two got into a glaring contest that neither one wanted to lose. Tony wasn't sure if what he was seeing was real. Hardened criminals turned to blubbering fools under that glare but the boy reciprocated it in kind. It sent a shiver down the man's spine.

Finally, Agent Gibbs rubbed his brow and let out a sigh as he leaned back looking up to the ceiling in what looked to be a silent prayer. His eyes went back to Danny with a stern gaze, less accusing and more thoughtful and searching. The difference was so great from the look of certain accusation he was getting before that Danny felt like a physical weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Okay…" Gibbs said slowly deciding he needed to approach this differently. "Say I believe you saw this ghost."

"Boss?"

Gibbs held up his hand stopping Agent DiNozzo as he pulled out a small notebook. "Where did you see her?"

"An alleyway." Danny said his body visibly relaxing. "Between the bowling alley and the laundromat- about 6 blocks from here." Danny felt a sliver of relief washing through his gut. It was like Gibbs was giving him a second chance and with it there was the possibility that these men would not flat out write him off as a liar, a crazy ghost fanatic, or worse, a killer.

Gibbs was surprised by the change in the boy as his defenses seemed to suddenly vanish. "Did you see anything else?"

"No." Danny shook his head. "Just the girl. It kind of freaked me out… I rushed home after I saw her…" Danny felt a flush of embarrassment redden his cheeks at the admission. Though, the adults in the room could never guess at how shameful it felt for the ghostly hero to admit that the encounter had frightened him. Gibbs studied the boy a moment. The boy either changed his strategy as quickly as Gibbs had or he was telling what he believed to be the truth.

Gibbs scribbled the info down in the small notepad before he snapped it shut. Scrutinizing the boy before him once again. If he was telling the truth, why was he so defensive before. He thought of the conversation and tried to suppress a grin. The kid didn't want them to know why he was in the alley. Testing the theory he accused the boy. "You don't want us to know why you were in the alley." Danny looked down his legs beginning to bounce. _'Bingo.'_ Deciding that was enough Gibbs moved on.

"I see." He said ambiguously. He didn't care what the boy was doing, it had nothing to do with their case.

There was one more thing he had to clear up, though, before they left. "Were you aware that this girl had a crush on you?"

Danny's head shot up like a bullet his eyes going wide with surprise. "W-what?" This news was unexpected. Danny didn't think any girl gave him much thought. His cheeks reddened at the thought. Tony tried to hide his laughter at the boy's reaction.

"We found her diary." Agent Gibbs continued pulling out said book as he flipped it open. "It has a lot of you in it."

"Isn't that kind of invading her privacy?" Danny asked. Then stopped as he saw the confused irritation cross the man's face. "I mean… just because she's dead doesn't mean she doesn't deserve to be treated with respect."

"I'm not going to go read it off a soap box." Agent Gibbs retorted. "We're trying to find out what happened to her. Outside of complaining about the "crappy" school system here and a few odd stories about ghost you're the only person she writes about in detail."

"That's kinda creepy." Danny said slowly frowning in thought. "I didn't even know her. I mean I saw her around school sometimes but I only was able to make a link between her face and her name when the missing posters started popping up."

Gibbs and Tony shared a look. "So you didn't know Merry?" Agent DiNozzo asked.

Danny shook his head. "Not really. No."

Gibbs let out a long sigh. "Alright. I think that's everything." Blinking in surprise Danny watched as the Special Agent stood up and held his hand out to his parents shaking their hands firmly. Then he held his hand out to Danny. "Thank you for your time."

Danny stared at the offered hand a moment his mind reeling. He wasn't sure whether Agent Gibbs suspected him of murder or not. Nervously he took the man's hand. "I hope you find out what happened to Merry." Danny said sincerely.

"It's my job to solve these kind of mystery's." Gibbs said curtly.

Danny let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, smiling broadly at the agent before him. He somehow felt that Merry had nothing to worry about. "Good. Maybe if you help solve her murder she'll be able to rest and we'll have one less ghost around here. God knows we don't need any more." Gibbs just stared at Danny for a moment, not glaring, more observing. As if he was trying to process the boy's existence. It lasted long enough for Danny to start fidgeting uncomfortably. Then without a word the man turned and headed for the door.

"That's a nice sentiment." Agent DiNozzo quipped. "Too bad ghost doesn't exist."

Danny just grinned at the agent in a slightly amused and somewhat mischievous manner.

Tony froze, momentarily disturbed by the boy's expression. ' _What kind of face is that?_ ' He wondered, before his boss's voice cut through with a sharp: "Tony!" Gibbs bark broke him out of his unexpected staring contest.

' _Man that kid can hold a gaze._ ' Tony thought uneasy.

"We'll be back if anything comes up to bring your statements into question." Gibbs said opening the front door. "Tony, let's go!" The field agent scurried out the door per his superior's orders. Danny watched them leave a slight smile still on his face before it fell as an unease crept up into his stomach. His mom pulled him into a hug telling him how proud she was of him.

Once on the street Tony found a relaxed pace next to his boss. Pretending to be cool about the experience. "So…" Questions were rattling through his brain and he couldn't shake the feeling that Danny wasn't… right. He also didn't want to accuse Gibbs of believing in ghost but he seemed to be taking the kid's statement at face value.

Gibbs came to a sudden stop. "What is it DiNozzo?"

"What was that about?" Tony asked. "It's rare for you to just leave things like that."

"My gut's telling me this isn't were we need to be."

"What about Rule number 39?!" Tony asked and began to tick off his fingers. "You can't tell me this isn't coincidental. Our first suspect being the son of ghost hunters. The town calming to be haunted. The kid saying, he saw a ghost. The ghost excuse is just too convenient. Besides there were points when that kid wasn't able to look you in the eye. He was lying."

"True." Gibbs said. "He lied about running from ghost, about why he was in the alley, and about thinking it wasn't a ghost at first, but he wasn't lying to us about seeing something in the alley. As of now it's the only lead we've got. So we should check out that ally."

"Still… that kid gives me a bad vibe." Tony said. "Plus, we didn't even ask him for an alibi."

"Don't need one."

"But?"

"I feel like we won't find anything connecting him to our vic outside of this book." Jethro Gibbs said lifting the diary. "It states clearly that she never talked to him, that she was convinced he didn't know who she was. He confirmed that he had little awareness of her prior to her going missing."

"He was talking about her when he walked in." Tony said.

"She's all over the news." Gibbs countered.

Tony shut up, realizing that Gibbs had made up his mind to look elsewhere. Tony silently decided to keep tabs on the kid. Just in case. Gibbs gut was usually right, but this time Tony's gut was screaming something fierce. Something just wasn't right about that boy.

"Forget about the kid." Jethro said seriously catching on quickly to his agent's thought process. It was easy to guess. Gibbs also felt there was something more to Danny Fenton, but he wasn't there for Danny. He was in Amity Park for Merry. "Focus on the case."

Tony worked his jaw a bit before he obediently followed his boss to the alleyway that sent the case flying.

* * *

Ziva sighed as she and McGee sat in a small hotel room. Abby's face on the screen of McGee's laptop. "So Merry's body was found dumped in a small supply truck as it was coming onto the base. The only reason we even know that Merry is Merry is because she was carrying her school ID card and dental records confirmed her identity."

"Right." McGee said.

"I'm analyzing some weird substances found on her cloths as we speak but there's almost no evidence on this end." Abby pouted a bit.

"We've been over this already!" Ziva said barley hiding her frustration.

"Well something must have happened to get Merry's body all the way from Amity Park, Illinois to Washington DC." Abby said in a huff. "If you guys do your snooping thing you just might find something!"

"Well where are we supposed to "snoop", as you say, if we have no point to start from?" Ziva asked.

"You could start at the school." Abby suggested. "Kids tend to be more perceptive than most give them credit for. Someone might have heard something that could give us a clue as to why Merry may have been out that night."

"True, but school's out for the day. We won't be able to talk to any students until tomorrow." McGee said covering his head with his arms. "Gibbs is not going to be happy if he and Tony get back only to find we've done nothing."

"Well… why don't we take a walk around town?" Ziva suggested. "See if we can't find the places the kid's hang in and maybe talk to them today."

McGee stared at her blankly for a moment. "She means 'hang out.'" Abby clarified for McGee.

"Oh. Right. Good idea."

"Really?" Ziva asked Abby. "It's hang out? That makes no sense."

"It's slang Ziva it doesn't have to make sense." Abby said grinning. "But trust me. It does."

"I think Tony was saying something about a Burger place earlier. That could be a good place to start." McGee said as he headed for the door.

"A good place to start or a good place to satiate your hunger?" Ziva teased.

McGee paused then blushed. "Both." He made for the door almost passing off his desperate retreat as an urgent stride. "Let's just get going."

The Israelite followed with a smirk after closing the laptop.

* * *

 _AN:_

 _This is the longest "Chapter" I've ever written.  
_ _I could have broken it up a bit... but it all felt like it went together... besides I was trying to keep the number of chapters in this story down...  
though lengthening the chapters in order to do so might be cheating... I mean it was a one shot idea that I wrote a little over a year ago... and I changed the end here...  
I had originally just had the interaction with Gibbs and Danny. (I greatly edited/extended it) Writing the interaction between the two was fun but I feel like I focused too much on Danny's unease and Gibbs glaring too often..._

 _Then I ended it kind of ambiguously with the team going to the alley and suggesting that they were going to meet the ghost... leaving it up to the reader to imagine what happened next... but after fleshing it out and adding more detail and clues I felt that ending was unfair... whoops..._

 _I just opened another story... *sight* Well, I guess sense I plan on catching up on all of my writing in December you guys can expect me to spam FF. Well... that is if I don't psych myself out of doing so... I did warn on my profile I would probably start new story's..._

 _I don't know exactly when I'll update again but I feel like it'll be in about a week. I have that much written. Then after that it'll probably be 2 weeks and I'll be out of school for brake!_


	4. File 3

**Ghostly C lues**

 **File 3:**

The first thing Tony noticed when he walked into the alley was that it was dark and dirty, barely room enough for a compact car to scrape into. It cut off at the end with a tall privet fence that connected the two buildings preventing passage.

The cracked asphalt was littered with stray bits of garbage. An old popcorn bag here, a dirty shoelace there. Not an area you'd just wander into. He frowned wondering what would draw a kid into such a dark corner of the city. Blinking he shook his head denying the fact that he started to speculate on the ghost being able to do just that.

Turning his attention to the walls he looked up to find a camera. Startled by the strange placement he stared up at it for a beat before he went to get Gibbs attention. "Boss. I found a camera."

Gibbs was kneeling down near the privacy fence his attention on something he'd found on the ground. "Well, go find out if it's hot!" He ordered as he scraped up the strange glowing substance into a small vial. As he was putting the sample away his phone began to ring. "Gibbs."

"Jethro." Ducky's voice met him. "I have finished my autopsy on Merry McColan."

"And." Gibbs prompted.

"Well…" The doctor hesitated. "It seems she is missing her heart."

Gibbs stood slowly looking around the alley as he felt a noticeable temperature drop. "What do you mean missing?"

"Well… it's gone. If it weren't for the fact that there were no marks on her skin, I'd say someone ripped it out. How they would do such a thing without opening her up though is beyond me…" There was a slight quiver in the man's voice. "I've never seen anything like it. Without any other signs of trauma, I'd wager that its absence is the cause of her death. It seems it was almost instantaneous."

Gibbs didn't have anything to say. He doubted he would have had anything more to say to such news in any situation, but at the moment he was frozen all of his attention devoted to staring down a glowing girl. The girl stood at the corner of the alley. She was stock still in her grey hoody no signs of breathing as her hollow yellow eyes bore into his. Despite her pale blue skin and the change in her hair and eye color Gibbs recognized her instantly. "Merry…" He whispered.

Suddenly the girl's face contorted into one of fear and pain and she let out an ear splitting screech. Surprised and unsettled Gibbs dropped his phone in an attempt to block his ears. His eyes never left her as her form fogged away from view and the sound of her voice faded.

"Jethro? What was that? Jethro?! Jethro, answer me!" Ducky's panicked voice called.

Taking in a shuddering breath Gibbs picked up the phone. "Y-yeah." The man stuttered, more shaken than he'd been in years, he was finding it hard to control his voice. "I- I'm here Ducky."

"What was that Jethro?" Gibbs stared at the corner for a long time his jaw tight. "Jethro?"

Taking a breath, he shook his head. "I don't know what that was." He admitted.

"You're fine though?" Ducky pressed.

Gibbs did a mental check. Physically he was fine… "I'll live."

"Thank god." The MD breath a sigh of relief. "That scared me what happened?"

"Dropped my phone. I'm going to have to call you back." With that Gibbs hung up.

"Boss." Tony walked into the alley his sudden appearance making Gibbs jump and spin his hand at the hilt of his gun. "Whoa." DiNozzo held up his hands. "It's just me. What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." He chuckled thinking the jab at the city's shared paranoia funny.

Gibbs glanced back to the corner of the alley before he nodded relaxing his stance. "I just might have."

"Um…" Tony stood uncertain at the mouth of the alleyway. "What?"

"I want McGee and Ziva to go talk to the Fenton's. Tell them I want to know everything they know about ghost. Then I want you to get this sample to Abby ASAP." DiNozzo stood stock still holding the strange substance numbly in his hands as his boss barked orders. "We need to understand what we're up against! This isn't going to be our everyday case. Next I want you to…" Gibbs trailed off staring blankly ahead.

"Boss?" Tony asked carefully as he turned to face Gibbs.

Gibbs started then shook his head spinning on his heel he stalked away. "Get on it DiNozzo! I'm going to get coffee."

"Coffee?"

"Yes..." Gibbs stopped a weariness in his voice. "Coffee." He looked Tony up and down. "Weren't you given an order?"

"Ub- ub…" Tony looked down to the vial in his hands trying to collect the orders he'd been given. "Right!" With that he headed toward the post office while pulling out his phone. "McGeek! Boss has orders for you! First I need you to go to the bowling alley and pick up some footage from the nearby alleyway. Next you and Ziva need to head out to Fenton Works."

"Alright. Are we making an arrest?" Tim asked.

"No. Boss wants you to ask the experts what they know about ghost."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. You and Ziva are going to go have a crash course on ghost."

There was silence on the other end until McGee let out a short laugh. "Right. Nice one. There is no way Gibbs would waste our time looking into ghost. Especially when they don't exist."

"Well, I'm just telling you what Gibbs told me. You can ignore the order and risk his wrath or you can hop to it and pull out your old handy dandy notebook and learn a thing or two about our old friend Casper."

McGee made a hesitant sound on the other end. "No. No. I'm not falling for one of your tricks again. If it's so important why don't you do it?"

"Because, McGee, Gibbs told me to tell you to do it. I'm on my own important mission."

"Oh, like what?"

"I have to deliver some mystery goop to our lovely Abby."

More silence fell from McGee's side of the line. "Fine. I'll do it, but I swear if this is a prank I'll spam your inbox with geek merchandise for months."

"It's not a prank McGeek."

"For months." Tim threatened once more before he hung up.

Tony couldn't help but laugh. "Good old McGee."

* * *

Danny paced his friends room nervously as said friend finished off a Nasty Burger. "Dude." Tucker chided. "Calm down. Worrying won't help you. I'm sure that even if your luck was bad enough to get you suspected for murder it isn't bad enough to get you convicted."

Danny glared at his friend. Something Tucker noted he'd had a sudden upgrade in over the last hour since he'd seen him. It was a strange tidbit to top all the anxiety rolling off of his half ghost friend. "I'm not worried about being convicted of murder Tuck. Well… not much anyway." The boy paused before he shook his head. "It's what this all brings to light that's bugging me."

"And that would be…" Tucker wasn't sure what was going through Danny's head. He just hoped it was within the realm of reason.

"There's something deeper going on. That ghost today she said she was woken up and she's not the only one. Haven't you noticed that there have been way more ghost than our regulars lately?" Danny asked.

Tucker shrugged. "So, it's just one of those things. Like an ark in the bell curve. It'll settle soon enough."

"That's the thing Tucker. I don't know why… but I feel like it's more."

"You're trying to tie your ghost hunting problems in with Merry's disappearance." Tucker said with a heavy sigh. "It's your hero complex man. You're drawing connections where there aren't any connections."

"What if I'm not though?" Danny asked spreading his arms wide. "What if I'm just now starting to see the connections? Signs that have been popping up everywhere for more than a month now!?"

"Danny…" Tucker wasn't sure how to approach this. Sometimes telling Danny he was blowing things out of proportions was enough and he'd take a step back laugh it off and settle. Other times, if he was dead set on an idea, it would rile him up and drive him to extremes to prove he was right. Tucker had to decide here and now how serious Danny was about connecting Merry to ghost.

No not that exactly. He needed to decide how serious Danny was about trying to help solve Merry's disappearance- her death.

Tucker groaned realizing that Danny was not going to just drop this. "Fine. So what if you're right? Where do we go with this… theory?"

Danny stood deathly still his hand at his chin as he stared intently at Tuckers wall. Taking a breath, the boy turned to Tucker his face serious. "We need to find the ghost that's been causing this chaos."

Tucker flopped back onto his bed his voice leaving his lungs with a sound of defeat. "I'll call Sam."

* * *

 **Authors Note:**

 _Hey guys... Sorry for the delay... on everything. I'm still alive I promise and I plan on continuing my story's. Life's getting better. I'm happier than I have been in a long time._

 _It wasn't that long ago that I hatted everything about myself. Today I can honestly say I'm not to horrible a person... just really bad at life._

 _Anyway all of what's been happening to me is real personal and you know the same old song and dance of "whoa is me" the whole of humanity has to deal with but for some reason I just complicate the simple things so... uh... sorry... I'm rambling._

 _This chapter is shorter than I wanted it to be... I will do my best to continue this story. I am pretty sure I've decided where I want it to go... I don't think I've ever written a murder mystery... so forgive me if it falls short or seems cliche..._

 _I was also informed of some spelling mistakes in previous chapters... I'll fix them once I get the next chapter cleaned up.  
 **Thank you all so much for reading!**_


	5. File 4

_Hello, just a simple chapter to get myself back in the swing of things...  
Sorry about the wait...(if you care as to why the update took so long explanation is after the chapter) please enjoy._

* * *

 **Ghostly Clues**

File 4:

"Well… she was quiet."

"Merry was really sweet."

"I guess she was alright."

"Who?"

"No I didn't really know her."

"She seemed kind of stuck up."

"We had, like, one class together."

"She never talks!"

"Well I guess she was kind of cute…?"

McGee sighed leaning back in his chair. "This is painful." To McGee it was disheartening to him how little he learned. "It's amazing what kids do and don't remember." He murmured. Half the class only knew her because they shared the same classes. The other half told them little innocuous things. Like the fact that she seemed to really like kitty sweaters. Or the time that she apparently tripped and bumped into a sophomore football player who was just moments from introducing her to the hierarchy of the school in response when Sam Manson stepped in to calm the boy. As far as anyone could tell the incident hardly shook Merry and some of the student's started to think of her has cold and distant after instances like that. There were few people she gave more than a receptive "hi" to and even fewer she gave her own "hellos" to.

Merry, as far as McGee was concerned, seemed to be an extremely lonely girl. He sighed, picking up his folders and tapping them against the table.

"I agree, it is disheartening. I feel it would be more lucrative to talk to specific student's rather than the whole student body." Ziva said in response to his half hearted complaints.

"True…" McGee looked at his list." Look there are only 10 more students in her class… how about we finish them up then move on to some of the older students that were mentioned.

"What like Fenton? Gibbs already talked to him."

"No, after our little stop at the Nasty Burger last night I'm thinking someone more like…"

* * *

"Ms. Paulina Sanchez please have a seat." Ziva motioned for the girl as she walked in. The hispanic girl slid into the plastic school chair gracefully as if she'd made it an art to move into said chair smoothly. McGee looked over his folders not giving the girl much of a glance. Ziva's brow cocked just slightly but nothing else betrayed her thoughts. Silently she was happy she was with McGee and not Danozo.

It was interesting the amount of character they'd seen in students of the school already. According to their investigation this girl was top of the school's inner food chain. If there was any gossip surrounding Merry this would be the place to start. Ziva doubted the legitimacy of gaining info from the rumor mill but any small lead could help them. Still, they really hoped to find something with the queen bee, sense the Freshmen (who should have been closest to the victim considering they were in the same class. "Should have" being the point) knew very little of her. Honestly, it felt like the investigation hadn't even really started yet. They didn't have a clue as to where the girl died or who may have killed her. She was positive the girl had been killed but that was almost entirely circumstantial based on the information she currently had.

Shaking her head the woman refocused on the present moment as McGee started. "It says here you're a Sophomore, head cheerleader and treasure of you class. Pretty impressive."

"Well, Papa says that I am capable of anything I put my mined to." The girl said brushing her hair over her shoulder. "Um… officers?"

"Special Agent Timothy McGee."

"Officer Ziva David."

"Officer David, Agent McGee…" Paulina nodded respectively, nibbling on her bottom lip nervously. "Am I in trouble?"

"No." Ziva said bluntly.

"Our team is just trying to find out what happened to one of the student's here. Did you know Merry McColan?" McGee asked.

Paulina let out a breath then let her eyes roll to the side as she thought. Her face visually shifted as she connected events in her mind. " Oh…Right, the missing girl. Well, I mean no one really _knew_ her. She was very standoffish. Kind of snobbish in a way… but not intentionally so. It was like she didn't want people to get close to her. She tried very hard to be invisible." Paulina's eyes met Ziva's and she looked the other way a slight blush dusting her cheeks as some kind of realization crossed her features. Her voice suddenly got slightly higher pitched. "Who would want that? I try really hard to always be the center of attention. And-I mean- It's not like I notice losers or anything… You know there was a rumor that she smokes…" Here Paulina's voice dropped conspiratorially. "Pot."

Ziva blinked. Trying to wrap her head around what just happened with the girls response. It started out as observant and intelligent and then switched to a more traditional gossip style. She looked to McGee who looked almost lost as to how to deal with the girl talk.

Deciding it was her turn to push forward Ziva was very blunt. "Well status does not matter at this point. She is dead. We are trying to figure out why."

Paulina bit her lip looking down before she took a deep breath through her nose. "Well…" She sighed. "Okay, I mean she was more of a loan wolf than a looser anyway. She would be okay if she'd walk with her head up and stop scrunching her shoulders. She was always trailing Fenton though and not to figure out his connection to Phantom. I could tell she had it bad. Social suicide in this school. Can't blame her though, she was way outside the loop… most of the rules in place she was completely ignorant too, and we agreed to let her be, sense she wasn't making waves. Who cared if a lowly wolf was pining after dog chow?"

Agent David's brow did raze this time. "I am sorry. I do not understand. Sometimes colloquialisms go over my head."

"Oh, I didn't realize-"

"I think she's saying that Merry wasn't very popular-

Paulina waved a hand dismissively interrupting McGee trying to explain. "It doesn't matter. All I'm saying is I'm pretty sure she liked Fenton… but I don't see how that'd help you Danny… is weird… But he could never hurt anyone… I doubt he would if he could. He's too… old fashioned. Plus, he is totally clueless. He didn't even know she existed till she disappeared. He was still one of the most upset- but- You know he still hasn't figured out that Sam Manson totally has the hot's for him and they've been friends since, like, 6th grade."

"Well, I don't see how that has anything to do with our case."

"That's what I'm saying." Paulina said. "No one knew her. Not even the people she liked. For the first month she was here half of the school was convinced she was mute."

"She rarely talked?"

Paulina chewed her bottom lip again. A nervous habit she tried to brake often. "Very rarely…" Then her eyes snapped forward. "I do remember her raising her voice once though. She was having an argument. It was, like, a few weeks before she disappeared. I didn't recognize the guy she was talking too… he looked like a freshman... I mean he could go here? I don't know. If he does than he was a total loser."

Ziva and McGee both sat up straighter. "Do you remember what he looked like?"

The girls face scrunched up. "Maybe. He was wearing this ugly green hat and was dressed kinda like he wanted to be gangster in the 90's but wasn't even pulling that off."

The Ziva hesitated in her note taking but shrugged off her inhibitions. Paulina was clearly the type of girl who prefer to play dress up. Acting like a helpless and stuck up girl. Maybe she was, but Ziva could see intelligence and strength in the girl. It was clear that Paulina Sanchez saw more than she normally let on. "I'm going to record this. Is that okay with you?" McGee asked the teen.

"Yes. Where do you want me to start?"

"How about what you saw?"

* * *

It was about 40 minutes later. McGee and Ziva were taking a break considering calling it a day, since the school would be closing soon, when there was a slight knock on the door to the room. Ziva tried to hold back a slight laugh as McGee jumped looking up to see the vice principal Edward Lancer walk into the room. "Hello, sorry, I did not mean to startle you. I was just hoping to get a chance to talk to you."

"Oh." McGee nodded. "Of course. We plan on talking to faculty and staff sometime tomorrow but if you have information pertinent to the case we can always make time."

"Well, I don't know if it's pertinent exactly…" The older man hesitated wringing his hands slightly. "I take a high pride in helping students when I can. Merry was bright. She had too many fears for her own good. I do think talking to the faculty will help you more than the student's."

"Why is that?" Ziva asked, all her attention on the portly man.

"Well… Merry wasn't good with talking to the other students but she was a very nice girl. She has- excuse me- had a kind heart. I know that she got along with the librarian more than she did any of the other students…"

"Good to know." McGee said with a nod he doubted he'd forget such a thing.

"What I wanted to discuss though was the last day Merry made it to school… It is something I've been think about a lot since she went missing…"

McGee set the folders down and pulled out a blank sheet and his tape recorder. "Do you mind?"

Lancer shook his head. "Not at all…"

"Okay…" McGee started the recording. "When was the last time you saw Merry McColan?"

* * *

 _Author's Notes_ :

 _WHY THE HELL DID IT TAKE SO LONG TO UPDATE? #1 I was finishing college and I also was in the middle of moving over the mountains. Life was/is kind of crazy. #2 have 2 new jobs now to help pay off loans for the school I just finished #3 The worst case of writer's block I've had in awhile… but I think it was more a result of not getting a chance to write so I got a bit rusty… (Sorry if it shows) #4 Research. I was trying to do some research for this story so it won't sound like an idiot wrote it… because well I may have a degree or two now but that doesn't make me smart… anyway I have come to the conclusion that there are too many things to research at the moment and I can do that later. (Researching relevant movies for Danoz has been fun but frustrating and time consuming.) If there's anything in the story that comes across as wrong or weird let me know and I will edit the story. If you have any suggestions or ideas on how to handle certain pieces of evidence or problems in the story better feel free to share. I'll let the readers know where the ideas/changes came from. If you like the story as it is awesome! Let me know! Or don't I understand writing reviews can be intimidating… but trust me even an "Update!" or a "good story" or a "do you even know english" will let me know that you guys are at least reading my story and I know the view numbers exist… but I don't trust them… Lol.  
Kinda kidding, but reviews do let me know if I'm still taking the story in a likable direction or not… It's harder to respond to guest reviews but if you really want an answer to a question say so in the review and I'll try to post a response in the following chapter. I won't respond to every guest review like this because it makes Author's notes too long…#5 and the final reason is I've been much more inspired to write original stories… but I feel bad (like always) for not finishing these… so here I am! Sorry again for the wait…_


	6. File 5

_Author's Notes:  
_ Welcome back guys! Hope you like this instalment. Things are picking up again as the team starts finding out new things about the case and inadvertently new things about Amity Park as well. Enjoy!

* * *

 **Ghostly C lues**

 **File 5** :

"The last time I saw Ms. McColan was after school the night she went missing. She came to me after classes. She seemed nervous. She asked me what would happen if it was discovered that a student was connected to ghost. It was an odd question to me. Seeing as how I could see student's hunting ghost but being in cahoots with one… now that is hard to imagine. I asked her if she was working with ghost. She shook her head and was very adamant about the fact that she had never seen one up close." Lancer took a deep breath. "Then that's when I remembered the students all have an infatuation with Phantom. It wouldn't be hard to see her finding interest in the ghost or finding that another student may have even tried to get close to the spirit. So I asked her if she thought someone was working with a ghost. She hesitated. I asked if it was Phantom. Slowly she nodded then shook her head."

Lancer rubbed his bald head. "I'm not sure if I handled it appropriately. I mean, it's unheard of- how do you handle a situation like that?" Lancer asked looking lost. Slowly he shook his head.

"What did you tell her?"

Lancer took a deep breath resettling in his chair. "Well… I told her. If she felt that another student was in danger that telling faculty was the right thing to do. If she was worried about them getting into trouble for working with Phantom, I couldn't promise the student's safety. There are a lot of faculty who believe that Phantom brings the ghost here on purpose like he thinks the school is some kind of play ground."

"So you told her that if a student was found to be working with Phantom that they may get into trouble."

"Essentially, yes, mostly for her own benefit. If it was her who was helping him… I wanted her to understand. She seemed to… and she looked… scared. I half expected to here her to tell me what was really bothering her. However, that isn't what she said at all."

"What did she say?"

"She said. 'I need to stop them then.' And she looked very serious when she did."

There was a heavy silence. "What then?" Ziva asked.

"She turned and stalked away. I called asking her to explain but she left… and I never saw her again… you don't think she confronted the ghost or student messing with ghost do you?" Lancer looked stricken. He felt that if he had some how said the right thing that night Merry would be alive. "I have yet to hear of a ghost killing someone… but I believe that's in large part due to Phantom's efforts…"

Ziva and McGee shared glances. Tim was fully skeptical about the ghost, but it was clear that those in the town, even the most respectable of adults, believed there was at least something going on. Ziva was hesitant to believe something looked on with so much doubt was so widely accepted."Was there anything else?" McGee asked looking back to the teacher.

"No." The educator sighed. "I only wish I could be of more help."

* * *

After wrapping things up at the school the two agents met back up with Tony and Gibbs at the hotel… "Time to compare notes." Tony said spinning in the desk chair.

"Well…" McGee glanced at Ziva. "Apparently Merry had an argument with someone at the school a few weeks before her disappearance… but we're not sure who yet."

"Mr. Lancer thinks that Merry may have been trying to confront another student about their involvement with ghost." Ziva supplied.

After a pause in the conversation Gibbs nodded. "The video that you acquired from the bowling ally provided some interesting feed."

"Seem's our ghost gal is real." Tony said.

Tim blinked surprised but didn't say anything. "How are you coming along with the ghost research?" Gibbs asked. "Have you been able to meet up with the Fenton's yet?"

"No Sr." McGee said glancing at Tony trying to hide his surprise. "I talked to them on the phone. They said that they were willing to give a crash course… but we had to interview the student's today and it was late in the day when I talked to them so we set up the meeting for this Saturday. Or- ur- the day after tomorrow.""

"Good. Tomorrow, Ziva you and I are going to finish with the interviews." Gibbs looked to Tony and McGee. "The truck Merry was found in made stop at a shipping yard here in Amity Park before making it's final stop in Washington. I want you two to investigate the yard. See if anyone noticed anything odd."

* * *

The next day McGee and DiNozzo found themselves at a small shipping company on the edge of the lake where the truck had made a stop on its rout. It made the body making it to the vehicle just that more logical… but why it happened and who did it was still a mystery.

Tony stood just outside the office as McGee finished talking to the owner. "Ug…" The tech savvy man sighed. "It seems that their security system has been down for nearly 3 months. It apparently was only repaired 5 days ago… there's no visual data to find here."

DiNozzo's eyes narrowed as he looked around only half listening. "There's got to be more here."

"What are you thinking?"

"Carter gave us full run of the place." Tony said. "I say we give this place a full shake down."

Tim hesitated. "Right."

With that the two officials headed into the loading bay looking for anything unusual.

"Do you really think we'll find anything?" McGee asked. "It's been what… a month sense Marry vanished."

Danoz grunted as he stood from looking under a flat bed. "Well we won't know untill we look now will we?"

There was suddenly a scream and the two men looked up to see a shape falling from the sky. A small bang sounded as the object- no- as the body- collided with a shipment container. "McGee! Call 911!" Tony cried rushing to the shipping unit. There was a groan and DiNozzo skid to a stop as a figure stood McGee froze with the phone his finger over the last one. The being shook their head white hair floating out of their face. It was clearly a boy- but not like any boy either of the two men had ever seen. Neon green eyes looked up from where he fell and Tony tore his shocked eyes from the kid to follow his gaze.

At first he didn't see anything. Then there was a shimmer. "What the hell are you two doing!?" The owner Carter hollered. "That's The Hunter Ghost! Things get dicy when he and Phantom throw down!"

"What's he talking about?" McGee stage whispered to Tony. The agent shrugged, just as the shipping unit exploded seconds after the boy shot back into the air as if pulled by some sort of invisible harness. DiNozzo instinctively hit the deck and McGee threw up an arm to block flying shrapnel from hitting his face as he ducked and cursed.

"In here!" Carter called motioning for the two into the building. Neither needed a second invitation as they rushed into the office. "What the hell is going on?"

"Phantom's fighting off The Hunter Ghost." The man said breathlessly, his stout form bent over slightly as he leaned agains a filing cabinet. His eyes were on a window just behind Tony. "We don't know why but he and Phantom are nearly alway's fighting- damn it!" The man cursed as there was a sharp "Zap! POW!" From outside.

"What?" DiNozzo cried in alarm. "What is it?"

"They just blew up one of my new cameras! Shit!"

"Hunter ghost?" Tim asked peering out the window. "How can you tell what ghost he's fighting?"

"You start to recognize them over time." The man said. "The armored suit sure is a big giveaway."

Tony and Tim shared a look. "Armored suit?" DiNozzo mouthed.

"I only see the kid." McGee said.

"Phantom."

"Right…"

The man gave the two a strange look. "You can't see the ghost?"

"Well I see a flying kid fighting a slightly shimmering light in the sky." Tony said.

McGee nodded. "Is that not what you see?"

"I see two ghost battling it out." The man frowned.

Suddenly the back door flew open as another man rushed in stumbling over a box as a small explosion happened behind him. He turned to look out the door his hiked shoulders dropping with an "Aw Man. That was my house guys!"

Tony felt a small smirk fall on his lips. It seemed not all was lost. "Who's that?" He whispered to the man next to him.

"Just a squatter." The manager said a disapproving frown on his face.

The squatter turned at the sound of their voices his slightly guarded face shifting to one of happy greeting. "Yo, what's happening here?"

"Just…" Tony glanced out the window as the black and white suited kid zoomed by his flight followed by a trail of popping explosions. "Waiting out the storm."

"Heh, good one."

"This isn't a joke Tommy." Carter growled wiping the smirk off of the homeless man now known as Tommy's face.

The homeless man held up his hands. "Hey we're all friends here."

"Yeah, and friends tell friends things." Tony said holding up his badge. "NCIS. I have some questions for you."

McGee was staring wide eyed out the window as the strange fight continued. "Is this normal?" He asked as he watched the ghost boy pull out a cylindrical object. "I mean, it's like a war out there? Shouldn't we call someone?"

"NCIS?" Tommy squinted at Tony's badge, ignoring McGee. "Never heard of ya."

DiNozzo sighed exasperated as Carter shook his head looking at Tim with sympathetic eyes. "You could call the GIW, but I would never do that to Phantom- kid already has enough to deal with fighting off the renegade ghost."

"The one thing we agree on." Tommy snapped making Carter grunt. Then he crossed his arms facing the NCIS agents. "So you guys are fed?"

"Sort of." McGee said.

"No." Tony said at the same time. The two agent's shared a look. DiNozzo rolled his eyes. "All that matters is that we're trying to find out what happened to Merry McColan."

"Oh." Tommy said. "That was sad hearing that she went missing…"

"Yeah. Well, we found her body in a truck that made it's last stop at the shipping yard here. It would have been late on the 13 of last month."

Tommy hissed through his teeth in distaste. "Oh, unlucky 13…" The manager scoffed as the homeless man took a moment to think. "I remember that night… it was clear. A nice night with a full moon and everything… but no… I don't remember anything weird… There were several trucks that night too…"

"He's right. There weren't even any ghost attacks that night. It was quiet." The manager said. "A night the ghost boy probably really appreciated."

"Till he found a girl went missing I bet. He was seen near almost every search party they had the moment it was announced she was missing. He was clearly worried. Maybe even thought a ghost got to her."

"Could a ghost have taken her?" McGee asked almost feeling detached at how unbelievable the situation of him asking that question- let alone seriously- felt.

"Oh yeah. It wouldn't be the first time someone was taken by ghost. Phantom's always saved the people taken though."

McGee looked to Tony who was also giving him a look that seemed to say, "Gibbs isn't going to like this."

"Right…" McGee said realizing that it was quiet outside. "Looks like the ghost are gone…" He and Tony took a moment to look at the clear sky's. Both slowly processing what just happened to them. "Uh... Thank you." McGee stuttered shaking himself. "We should probably head out..."

DiNozzo blinked shaking his head. "Right." He looked to the other two in the room and smiled. "Yeah. You guys really helped us out. We'll see you around." With that the two agent's headed out to meet back up with their team.

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_  
 _So awhile back a reviewer said they wanted to see how the team would react to seeing Skulker and Danny fighting... it's not the whole team but I did manage to put on a battle. Even though I do find it a bit cliche I like the fact that this allowed me to kind of share some more of my endless theories about how ghost could work in Amity Park. I'll try to go into more detail about this theory later._

 _I feel like the details in this chapter are a little lacking but hopefully with some more practice the chapters will get better. Clue's are starting to gather but I don't think the investigation is rolling quite yet. I finally decided where I want this story to go. I have a pretty good idea of who the bad guy is... though I'm still working out some of the details. I'm actually having fun with with this. I apologise again though, if the clues don't match up or if it doesn't make sense or feel like a crime story... It's my first time writing anything like this..._


	7. File 6

**Ghostly Clues**

 **File 6:**

It was early for Danny to be at school, though he wasn't there as Fenton. Classes didn't start for another hour. He found it slightly ironic that he could manage to be on school grounds at all hours of the day but still have the worst attendance in the history of the school. The fact was not funny to him. Still, he was here for an important reason and a mental brake down of his academic career was not going to get in his way.

Quietly Danny phased through the school walls till he reached the office. He paused for a moment there as he took in the sight of two suited strangers. One of them was a stout man with a bit of a baby face. The other was a strong jawed woman with wavy brown hair. "NCIS." The Man shook the Principal's hand.

"I'm officer Ziva David and this is Special Agent Timothy McGee." The woman introduced shaking the smaller woman's hand as well.

Special Agent Timothy nodded. "We would like to talk to your students. See if we can't piece together Merry's last day." The male agent said to Principal Ishiyama.

Danny winced. The crime investigators had their hands full. Team Phantom had been covertly investigating students since Merry first went missing. She proved to be one of the hardest people to find info on. He half smiled though as he slipped through the office wall. He was glad to see them around, if Merry's disappearance wasn't because of a ghost it would be best if they handled it. This was Amity Park though and Danny doubted the lack of ghostly involvement.

Making his way out back Danny dropped the invisibility and spun as he heard a hissed. "Pssst!" A scrawny teenager of a ghost stepped out of the shadows as he did so.

"Poindexter!" Danny greeted happily holding his arms out. "I see you got my message."

"Yeah, I got it." The ghost rubbed his arm looking highly displeased. "Just so you know I'm not doing this for you." The old time nerd snapped. "You may have destroyed my tether to the school but in doing so you've freed me. I can view anyplace I choose through any mirror I chose."

"Good. I'm glad." Danny said. Poindexter's face showed a moment of surprise but it was gone so quick Danny wasn't sure he'd really seen anything. "I was hoping though that maybe you've been keeping an eye on the school… have you?"

"Well…" Sidney looked sheepish and hesitated to answer. "Okay, yeah… but only to protect the kids who can't protect themselves!"

"Well, I haven't noticed you causing any trouble so you're not in any. Just, tell me, what you know about Merry. Did she have any friends? Enemies?" Danny rolled his hand. "Where did she spend lunch?"

"I don't know… What good would you knowing all that do you?"

"It might help me find the bully that hurt her." Danny said seriously. "Don't think I forgot my promise either. I know how much you and your friends like your cola."

"Sure beat's egg cream." Poindexter said with a nod. Giving the ghost boy another hesitant gaze he finally sighed. "Okay… Just to let you know I don't see everything… I'm not always looking at this school, but form what I saw Merry didn't have any school friends…"

"None?" Danny asked sounding sad.

"Not that I saw. I could relate honestly… and some people didn't seem to like her much but no one really messed with her."

"Who didn't like her?"

"I don't know. Some of the girls talked- the things they say are almost always cruel but they talked more about your human half than her."

"Okay, so she wasn't a huge topic…" Danny frowned.

"She did spend a lot of time in the library." The gray ghost said. "I'm pretty sure if anyone could be called a friend to her it would be the librarian…"

"Mrs. Logan?" Danny frowned thinking of the uptight woman. "I can't imagine that…"

"You'd be surprised. The librarian is one of the nicest people I've seen pass through Casper High's halls."

"Doesn't really say much." Danny muttered.

Poindexter snorted out a laugh. "Tell me about it."

Danny rubbed the back of his neck feeling a bit awkward. "Well, thank you Poindexter. I'll bring those soda's to you this Saturday. You've really helped me out… the living don't seem to have a clue as to what happened to her…"

"Well…" Poindexter said as he began to fade out. "Maybe the living had nothing to do with her death."

Danny looked to the empty air sharply. It always threw him when ghost pulled the creepy card like that. That exit made him wonder if Poindexter knew what had happened to Merry.

Rubbing his face he shook his head. If Poindexter knew that he would have told him. The ghost was odd but he was one of the few Phantom trusted. Danny chuckled to himself at the thought. Old Sidney Poindexter would probably take offense if he knew. Slipping back into the building Danny Phantom set off to take on Danny Fenton's school day.

* * *

The day had been full of PA announcements calling students into the office to meet with the "Cops." As the hall's emptied four students met in an empty classroom. "So I did some research on NCIS." Sam said. "Looks like they were upfront with you Danny. They seem to be kind of like the CSI of the Navy… but the cases they deal with are a lot higher profile than what most CSI see. Not only do they handle suspicious Navy and Marine officer deaths they also help in investigations that could lead to threats in the Navy or even at times to the nation."

Tucker let out a whistle. Then he cleared his throat pulling out his PDA. "I tried to tap into some of their tech, see if we can't keep up with their investigation… but they have some good security. I was only able to get into low level files." He frowned. "I had to pull back before I was noticed."

"Wait, should you really be hacking government files?" Jazz held up a hand looking slightly upset.

Tucker gave Jazz a dry look. "I've hacked the GIW loads of times."

"But that's for like ghost stuff- and protecting Danny."

"Its cool." Sam said. "This will help us help them."

"Right." Danny nodded. "Okay, what do you have Tuck?"

"Looks like they found Merry in a truck in Washington DC. I wasn't able to open up any info regarding her autopsy…" He shivered; silently thankful. "Also, they met up with her ghost where you told them you saw her-

"Wait what? What happened?" Danny asked worry coating his voice.

"Nothing." Tucker said not looking up from his screen. "According to the report she appeared screamed and vanished."

Danny let out a sigh. "Just like with me."

"Apparently they got video but I can't actually access that."

"Wait video?" Sam asked glancing at Danny.

"Yeah, apparently the bowling alley had a camera in the ally. Don't really know why, but it caught the whole seen." Tucker glanced at her catching the tone of worry in her voice.

Danny nodded. "It's okay Sam. I didn't transform or anything." He gave her a reassuring smile.

Sam didn't return it. "But you were there- as Phantom?"

"Well, yeah."

"Didn't you tell the NCIS guys that you saw Merry there?"

"Yeah." Danny shrugged. "So?"

"You told them Danny _Fenton_ ran into her?" Sam stressed. "What if they try to corroborate your story? They won't see you at all- but your story will match up perfectly with what happened with Phantom!"

Danny paled. Jazz stood putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay little brother. If they ask, just tell them you work with Phantom and he told you the story. It really struck you and you knew that Phantom couldn't tell them so you did…"

"Well, we don't know if they even looked that far back in the recordings." Tucker said.

Sam nodded pressing her lips together. "No need to get riled up over it now. We'll worry about it if it comes up."

Danny took a deep breath. "Right…"

"So… what do we know?" Jazz asked.

The room was quiet for a moment. Finally Danny took a breath. "Merry went missing without a trace on the 13 of November. I looked but I couldn't find any obvious signs of ghost connected to her…"

"In fact that night there were no ghost attacks whatsoever." Tucker said punching at his PDA. "Unless you failed to tell us about a late night hunt." Tucker gave Danny a pointed look prompting Sam to do the same.

Danny held up his hands. "No. I remember that night." Danny said. "I had an argument with Mom and Dad about my grades. I found it ironic because it was the one night in like 2 months were I wasn't late. I was eager to avoid the whole curfew argument but I got hit with midterm results in stead." He let out a hollow laugh.

"I remember that night… probably was a good thing no ghost showed." Jazz said giving her brother a sympathetic look.

Danny shook his head. "This meeting isn't about me."

Jazz rubbed his back and he gave her a half strained smile. Jazz gave him a gentle smile in return and looked to Tucker as she pushed their discussion forward. "Well, we also know she was found in a truck. Do we know how she got into that truck?"

Tucker typed a few things into his PDA. "No. No one knows how yet… but it looks like the truck… yeah. The truck stopped at a shipping yard here in Amity."

"Sounds like a good place to start." Sam said. "Danny?"

Nodding Danny crossed his arms. "You're right. I'll check it out tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Jazz asked. "Why wait?"

Danny shared a glance with Sam and Tucker who shrugged in response. Danny sighed. "I'm going to do some interrogations of my own. See if any of our ghostly friends might have noticed anything odd lately."

"Ghostly friends?" Jazz asked. "Like who?"

"Well, I really will start with friends. I'll ask Pandora and Dora if they've heard anything. Maybe even stop at Frostbites though he doesn't usually get any word from the human world. If I can I'll ask Wulf for help… but mainly I'm just going to do some old fashion bash and ask." With that last statement Danny put a fist in his palm and smirked.

Jazz sighed shaking her head. "Just be careful little brother."

Danny gave his signature Ghost Boy grin as the bright rings washed over his body. "Aren't I always?"

"Hardly ever." The three said dryly together.

Danny just laughed as he ghosted through the roof.

* * *

 _Authors notes:  
_ _So I've never had an egg cream. They actually sound pretty good… but I like the idea of the ghost in the parallel Ghost Zone Casper High finding cola's to be exotic and exciting. I'm rewatching NCIS because it has been a while. So while I play catch up with that we have the perfect opportunity to find out what's been happening with Team Phantom… plus you guys seemed curious. :)_


	8. File 7

**Ghostly Clues**

 **File 7** :

Danny sighed as he capped the thermos. "Who was that Tuck?"

There was a yawning sound from the Fenton Phones. "Sorry man… I think they called themselves Crag the Insatiable. Is it me are these ghost's names getting weirder and weirder?"

"It's no worse than The Box Ghost." Sam's voice came over the line. "Ghost Tracker is all clear for now- wait…"

Danny shuttered. "It's 1 AM Sam… please tell me it's just an echopuss and we'll leave it to the Guys in White or something."

"I guess it was," Sam said. "The single was really faint and now it's gone."

"Good." Tucker said. "Tomorrow's going to suck."

"You only have to sit in class." Danny said. "I have a much harder job to do."

"You're skipping?"

"It's just Friday." Danny said. "I think finding this killer ghost is more important."

"Just Friday." Sam scoffed. "You know Mr. Lancer always has a pop quiz on Fridays."

Tucker snickered. "Rather just dodge the bullet than take the quiz and fail it anyway, hu?"

"We all know I haven't had time to study. I was in the Ghost Zone all day after school today! Didn't get back till 10. Plus with the increase in ghostly activity. They should be happy I'm showing up to school at all."

"You don't want to fail Danny." Sam said concern in her voice.

"No." Danny sighed. "No I don't but, like I said, this is important. I'm going to see if I can't get some advice from Skulker in the morning."

"Skulker?"

"He is the so called Ghost Zones greatest hunter. If we're going to hunt down this ghost we have to start somewhere. Who better to ask?"

"Uh, anyone?" Tucker said. "He isn't going to help you dude."

"We'll see." Danny said. "I've reasoned with him before."

"Yeah, when _his_ hide was on the line." Sam scoffed.

Danny bit his lip. They were most likely right but… "Come on. He's mostly in it for the hunt. I'm sure I can strike some kind of deal with him."

Sam sighed. "Well… good luck."

"You're going to needit." Tucker said.

* * *

"Damn it, Skulker!" Danny dodged as a blast flew at him. "I only wanted to make a deal!"

"Hear's a deal for you! Stay still so I can finally mount your head on my wall!"

"Don't you ever get tired of making the same old threats?" Danny rolled his eyes.

Suddenly Skulker was in his face and his mechanical suit grinned in the creepy way only ghost tech can do. "Not at all." He said darkly blasting Danny point blank in the gut. Danny barely managed to form a shield. The green energy shattered instantly and the force of the blast sent him reeling. The world rushed by him and before he knew it he was feeling metal crunch beneath him. Grunting he stood shaking the ringing from his ears. As he heard the ghost jet engines approach he glared up at the ghost. Danny was really starting to wonder if it was too much to ask for a little cooperation.

"I have you now ghost boy!" Skulker gloated.

Danny registered voices to his left but didn't have time to think about it as Skulker put him in his sights. Without hesitation Danny shot into the air to the right, trying to distance himself from the civilians. As he got some air he couldn't help but chuckle. "Wow. You brought me to my next stop! Right where I wanted to be, thank you Skulky!"

Danny's jeering stopped as he saw the two figures near the now flaming box of metal he'd landed in. "Try not to burn the place down while we're here." Danny half heartedly requested.

"How about you resign to your fate!?" Skulker countered a rectangular box popping out of his shoulder.

"Would you?" Danny snapped sending a few ghost rays at the hunter. The sun was a third of the way through its jaunt across the sky and Danny knew it was about lunch time. _'Don't think about food right now.'_ He thought.

"That doesn't look good." Danny said noticing Skulker had fired his new weapon. Quickly he dove out of the way of what looked to be tiny missiles. The projectiles twisted in the air following his rout. As they got close to him they exploded. Danny screamed falling into a high barbed wire fence. The pole he collided with bent over him and he heard the sound of something plastic hitting the ground next to him. He looked to see a camera lens facing him only to watch it crack under Skulkers metallic boots.

"Look, I know you took offense with me hunting you down like that-

"I think you're mistaken. I am the hunter I do the hunting. I merely drew you out."

"Look at it how ever you want!" Danny cried throwing his hands out. "I need your help-

"The only thing I'll help you do is end your miserable half life! Welp!" A glowing blade slid from his wrist as he stepped forward.

Danny sighed. "I guess negotiations have broken down… what a shame."

Skulker grinned. "You're cornered ghost child."

Danny gave the ghost a bored look. "We both know I've been in tighter situations than this with you. I'll be fine. Now if you'd consider listening to me- whoa!" Danny ducked out of the way of the glowing blade and rolled underneath Skulkers bulk spinning to face the ghosts back. "Showing your enemies your back? Are we getting rusty Skulker?"

The ghost growled spinning shooting a ghost ray at Danny who laughed as he took off. He barley got a few feet before he felt a blast hit him in the small of his back. "Oof!" Danny fell onto a pile of random tarp and wood. Looking up he gasped shooting forward as quickly as possible feeling the heat of one of Skulkers rockets on his back. He heard someone whine. "That's my house!" Danny cringed.

"Okay this is getting way out of hand." With focused determination, Danny took off only to find the small rockets exploding quickly just behind him once again. "I really need to learn to stop poking fun at his pride." Danny mumbled as he twisted in the air. A few quck shots had Skulker steaming and Danny took that moment to pull out the Fenton Thermos.

Skulker barely had time to slow his jets before the beam took hold of him. Danny let out a sigh. "There's got to be a better way to talk to this guy…"

He looked over the yard and winced. The after math of the battle was not pretty. "Better get out of here before the GIW get wind of this." He glanced at the office as two men walked out.

Danny recognized them as the NCIS agents. Seem's they wanted to see what happened with the truck too.

Danny nodded. Remembering that he was going to do some snooping. He looked over the shipping crates and trucks and took a shuttering breath. "All well and good Fenton, but do you even know what you're looking for?"

* * *

Authors Notes:

Sorry for that ending... I know it's kind of abrupt and this chapter is only a rehash from another characters point of view... still I hope you like it... Next chapter hopefully will be a bit more mixed. I feel like the story's just bearly begun. lol

Thanks a billion for reading!


	9. File 8

_Authors notes:_

 _I want to formally apologize for making you guys wait… I've gotten a few reviews that have made it pretty clear that my break on this has been more than long enough and I should just get writing already… and the fact that I'm updating another story probably had a lot to do with this… I have a lot going on in life… and I had a lot of ideas on where to take this story… I've decided to just write it though… come what may. So take of that what you will._

 _I also wanted to thank you all for continuing to follow and like this story. I know it's frustrating to wait and I ended the last chapter saying this story had hardly begun. And that's still true as far as I can see…_

 _Depression is a funny thing… I feel fine- or I guess I've been telling myself over and over that I'm fine… I was told that thought has a strong effect on how we feel- and therefore on how we act. I have been telling myself that I'm good that I'm happy… and I feel good and I feel for the most part happy… but my actions suggest otherwise… I'm still not doing things. I'm still stuck in a rut. I haven't drawn as much lately- and I've only written a bit… I'm trying to break out of this funk… but I don't know what I need to do… Sorry. You guys don't need to hear this and it's all just excuses at the end of the day anyway. I mean maybe I'm just lazy…  
Still, I wanted to apologize… I've been in this fandom since the day the first episode aired… I have written almost exclusively in this fandom… and I kinda needed a break too I guess… but I think I'm okay now. I think I can get this story rolling. I hope to get back into the swing of things… I'm working on it again at least.  
I even know what I want to happen…(even if I did lose some of my notes) there's just more than one way to get there is all… and… I have a hard time making decisions…  
Also… I think it was suggested that I bump this story up to an M rating… after this chapter, it, maybe, might be necessary… but I would like to know what you all think… Is this a T rated kind of story or is it M… I honestly don't think my writing's descriptive enough in the gory details for an M rating… but I could be wrong… so I let me know, please.  
Anyway… I'm gonna shut up now and let you all read… that is if you still want to read this story…_

 ** _WARNING_** _: Minor character death ahead… and I don't remember how much language I used in this story pryer... but there is a bit of it in it now._

* * *

Ghostly Clues

File 8:

Ziva and Gib's stood looking in the library looking down at the items they'd collected from Merry's locker. "In her planner, she has several notes of "meet ty after school."" Ziva said.

"T. Y." Gibbs frowned. "Is it short for something?"

"A name maybe?" Ziva suggested. "She hardly uses proper punctuation at all in this."

"Ty does tend to be short for Tyler." Gib's noted.

"Tyler?" The librarian Mrs. Logan walked in then. She was a stout woman with her graying red hair pulled up in a tight bun. Green eyes shielded behind thick glasses settled on the two agents with open curiosity. "Are you talking about my nephew?"

"Maybe…" Gibbs said uncertainly. "Does your nephew go to school here?"

"No." Mrs. Logan shook her head. "He's homeschooled. He does tend to spend a lot of time here though since I work here. My husband is in charge of teaching him though."

"What about his parents?" Ziva asked.

"His parents…" Mrs. Logan looked sad. "They've passed. His father was in the Navy you see and well… he never made it home. His mother, my sister, did not handle his loss well and… well, she left us of her own accord."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Ziva said.

"It is… what it is." The woman said then shook her head waving her hand as if to ward off distracting thoughts. "Que sera sera. I hear you are looking into Merry's disappearance."

"We are." Gibbs said.

"I knew her fairly well… or as well as anyone I suppose. She was very quiet and kept mostly to herself."

"Did she have any friends?" Ziva asked.

"I believe Tyler and her were becoming as such…" The librarian frowned sadly smoothing out her patterned shirt. "I was happy for them… Tyler has such a hard time making friends. Being homeschooled and all."

"Can we set up a time to speak with him?" Gibbs asked jumping on the lead.

"I don't see why not. Do you have time this weekend?"

"Sunday." Gibbs said.

"Sunday at 3? How does that sound?"

Gibbs took out his notepad and wrote it down. "Here or at your home."

"My, how studious." The woman giggled clearly amused and pleased by his action. "My home would be best. Here I'll give you my address."

* * *

Tony and McGee sat parked outside the group's apartment. The inside of the car was silent as Tony sat hands firmly wrapped around the steering wheel. McGee was giving his teammate hesitant side glances. He'd broken out of the shock of what had happened at the shipping yard halfway back and had become intently aware of the heavy atmosphere in the car. That, plus the fact that Tony was driving like a robot, had Timothy sure he was still processing. As they came to a stop, Tony after performing a flawless parallel parking maneuver, had made no move to get out of the car.

McGee waited. He had no idea what to say or what it was that Tony was having trouble with. Out of everyone on the team the computer geek thought that DiNozzo would have been the most open-minded to the actuality of ghost. They couldn't sit here all day though.

McGee could practically feel his bosses gaze shifting their way- even though he couldn't see him in the house. "U-ub…" It was better to break whatever inner trance Tony had found himself in than to wait for their boss to come out and do it for them. "Tony…? We, uh, gonna go inside?" He ventured.

"What…" Tony's voice was quiet then he slammed his palms against the steering wheel's handles. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?"

"Um…" McGee didn't know what to say. Wasn't sure Tony was actually asking. This felt more like an expression of disbelief than a request for information.

"That was like a battle zone! These people put up with this every day? How is this not national news? What the hell is going on? I can't-!" Tony threw his door open and stomped up to the apartment they were using as a base of operations. "Come on McGee! We don't have all day!"

McGee huffed but followed anyway.

Inside Gibbs was standing in front of the laptop a distressed Abby on the screen. Abby pulled at her hair. "I don't know! Okay. I've run it through everything I can think of and it seem's to be a component of a few specific chemicals I recognize like sulfur and copper but there are things in this compound I nor the computers have ever seen before! As far as I can tell this stuff doesn't exist."

"Clearly it doses." Gibbs said calmly.

"What's going on?" McGee asked.

Ziva who was sitting on one of the beds flipping through some files frowned. "We're checking up on the analysis of that strange goo that Gibbs found in the ally."

"It's going well I can see." Tony quipped, belying little of the break down he all but avoided outside.

Ziva quirked an eyebrow as she looked up at him, a silent question. He looked away coughing into a fist. "So what do we have?"

"NOTHING!" Abby all but cried.

"Just keep looking." Gibbs said earning a glare from Abby.

"Have you tried a search outside the standard database." McGee suggested nervously.

"Like what?" The little forensic's question wasn't answered as their conversation was interrupted by an insistent flashing on the screen and a blaring noise; Abby frowned. "Wait, hold that thought." The woman said seriously.

"What is it."

"Someone's trying to hack the system."

"Well, stop them." Gibbs words were blunt as he frowned deeply. He hated computers that allowed people who were no were near the source to stick their grubby little fingers into information they had no business getting into. Like a cheat. If the information was national security secret. One should put their life on the line for it. Not sit on their ass and fiddle with a keyboard. Though he may be a bit bias and bitter in that department.

"Working on it boss." Was the diligent reply.  
The whole apartment room was tense as it seemed everyone was holding their breath in anticipation.

Abby worked quickly her fingers flying across the keys of her computer. It took about 3.5 seconds and the flashing and warning sound's stopped. Abby smirked. "They had no chance. You gotta try harder than that!" Her fingers were still moving. "Man these guys do not know what they're doing! They left an obvious trail!"

"You know who it was?"

"Tell ya in a second." Abby's face creased slightly. "Well, hello…" She murmured then shook her head. Fingers moving that much faster. "Got ya!"

"Well." Gibbs kind of asked. It was less of a question though and more of an order.

"Looks like FBI- No but they are a branch off of the FBI. Looks like the GIW server tried to hack us."

"GIW?" Gibbs growled.

More typing by the goth. "Guy's In White." She said digging further. "Oh, they're a low funded branch of the FBI that specialize in something very specific. I'll give you one guess."

"Ghost." Gibbs snarled.

"Bingo!" Abby beamed. "I'm going to hack their data- there must have been a reason they were interested in us- and check it out! I found our mystery substance!"

"What?"

"It's what set their commuter program on us. My search- the goo you found was what they're calling ectoplasm!"

"More ghost nonsense." Tony snapped.

Gibbs gave Tony a side glance, razing a brow just slightly. Tony shrunk back. "You two."

McGee straitened into attention at the address. "What did you find at the shipping yard?"

"Well…"

* * *

It was 3:22 AM Saturday morning and Danny had just finished capturing a small group of echopuss when there was a scream. It was unlike anything he'd ever heard before and Danny was used to hearing people scream. Ghost tended to have that effect on people. This scream wasn't fear though it was unbridled terror and misery. Shooting out of the sky toward the sound, his protective instincts kicking, in Danny found himself frozen in honor at the sight before him.

There was a teen lying in his own blood. Danny recognized him almost immediately. If his red hair wasn't a give away his tucked in white shirt and pocket protecter were. Danny couldn't tare his eyes from the boy's face though. "Oh god." Danny gagged dropping slightly.

At the door to the room standing with wide green eyes and long trembling fingers pressed firmly against her lips was the boy's mother. Danny could tell it was her scream that had drawn him there. "Mikey…" Danny found himself unable to move.

Blank sockets staring him down blood pulling from them like tears. A shiver went down his spine but no mist left his mouth. "Phantom." Mikey's mother was murmuring now. "Phantom. WHY DIDN"T YOU PROTECT HIM!?"

Danny flinched. "I didn't know… what happened?"

The woman shook chocking sobs racking her body as she fell to her knees. "I don't know… I don't Mikey! Mikey! My baby boy oh god!"

Danny gritted his teeth fighting back tears as he floated near her. "I… we should call the police… I didn't sense a ghost… maybe… whatever happened wasn't ghost related…"

"I saw it…"

"What?"

The woman hiccuped. "I saw a shadow. It faded away as I opened the door. It wasn't human."

Danny stared blankly at her. "A… shadow…" His brain was racing. He knew a few ghost that could fit that description and he knew there were undoubtedly more he'd never met.

Ghost had never flat out killed before, though some of their schemes could have ended up deadly if Danny hadn't stepped in…

There was one ghost he knew had almost killed… Danny would not enjoy hunting that ghost down… but if they were responsible… Danny cringed. "Mrs. T… If it's a ghost… I'll catch it… I'll hand it over to the Guy's in White… I'll do everything to stop it. Still…" Danny glanced at the unmoving form of his classmate. He'd never seen anything so unnerving before he could swear he saw a shadow of the boy floating over his body screaming. "We need to call the police."

"Mikey believed in you… thought of you as a true hero…" She blubbered. "I'm scared. Phantom. Please. Stay. Don't leave."

Danny swallowed. "I won't be going anywhere…"

* * *

 _Authors Notes:_

 _So should I bump it to an M rating? Let me know. Please and thank you! :)_

 _(Also any suggestions for Mikey's last name would be highly appreciated…)_

 _This is a major shift in the story, and things only get more frustrating from here for Danny…  
I have decided to put this story on the update schedule like I have TLoaSD. However, I'm only going to update once every month. So since today is 27 I'll update the story on the 28th of next month since I like even numbers more… Hopefully, this will give me enough time to write for both stories… I have an outline for TLoaSD and I have a basic plan for this story. I know who the bad guy is and I know who at least 2 (hopefully convincing) red herrings are._

 _Please let me know if I'm doing okay… I hope the voice of the story is staying relatively consistent at least…_


	10. File 9

_Authors Notes:_

 _Welcome back you lovely ghost! Most of you seemed to agree that a T rating was appropriate so that's what I'll be sticking with! Thank you for responding to my inquiry!_

 _Sorry, this chapter is later than the promised date. I had it written out the day before it was supposed to be posted and had planned a quick edit/run through to see if it was okay… (I'm still not happy with it) It turned out a bit shorter than I would have liked… Anyway, the next day started a three day nonstop one job to the next with little time to rest… Usually, I would have had a bit more time and would have been able to meet the goal but my second job is hitting a very busy time of the year for us… Next time I'll make sure the update day is on the weekend… hey- look next 28th lands on a Saturday. I'll defiantly try to have the next chapter posted either the 28th or the 29th of next month. Anyway. Enough of my rambling- on with the story!_

* * *

 **Ghostly Clues**

File 9:

Gibbs was sipping laggardly at a dark coffee and staring blankly at Merry's diary having given it another go through when his cellphone began ringing. Groaning he pulled the infernal device out of his pocket. "WHAT?"

"Gibbs!"

"Abby?"

"So I was just browsing through the GIW servers because- well, they have all this hidden info on things I've never heard of before- and we might need to know it for our case- plus they hacked us first- and our mystery hackers fingerprints are all over their server- seriously are these guys even trying? I mean if you have such secret info- especially secret to even other branches of the government shouldn't you at least invest in a proper firewall?"

"Abbs…" Gibbs' voice was exasperated.

"Right." The forensic specialist shuffled. "Rambling. So as I was saying I was sifting through their servers and there's a lot of questionable stuff here- but more importantly, even though they didn't get anything from us they've filled Merry's death as ghost related- and it looks like they're not only looking into another related case that opened early this morning, but they're already filing reports on a conviction."

Gibbs frowned deeply. "Send me the files. I'll get right on it."

"Sending McGee the files now." Abby chirped. "He'll brief you on your way. And hurry Gibbs…"

"I will." The man said throwing on his jacket. "And Abby…"

"Yes, Gibbs?"

"We're going to talk about this mystery hacker you mentioned later."

Abby sputtered. "I was going to tell you- I just-

"Forget it Abby. Later." With that, the man hung up moving to gather his team.

When the NCIS team arrived at the scene there was already a ruckus of noise and yelling. "Geeze." Tony snorted. "Usually we have to be seen before we get things this riled up."

"Clearly we aren't causing this." Gibbs said.

"I know- it was a joke."

Ignoring the other agent Gibbs marched forward up to the corner apartment on the third floor. "It's hectic in there." An officer at the door said. "I don't know if I'd get involved if I were you."

"This may be related to our case." Gibbs said. The officer shrugged opening the door and allowing the group in. Gibbs blinked a few times as he took in the scene.

An officer stood to the side looking irritated as two clean-shaven men stood in blindingly white suits pointing strange looking weapons toward a woman standing in front of a strange floating boy and one sprawled on the ground. The body if Gibbs had to guess. "You are obstructing justice!" The darker skinned white suit barked cocking his gun.

"YOU"RE OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE!" The red-headed woman screamed back her fist clenched tight at her sides and her body shaking.

The floating boy behind her had his hands curled up to his chest his legs pulled in slightly as he stayed just in reaching distance over her shoulder.

"Whatever your reasoning you are harboring an ectoplasmic entity who is in violation-

"He is a hero!"

"For all we know, he did this!"

The boy's toxic green eyes were wide and dilated. Gibbs knew fear when he saw it and this child was about to bolt. He floated back just slightly and the paler of the two men in white pulled his trigger sending a bright bluish beam flying. It was headed strait for the woman and the boy's body jerked and flowed moving in front of the blast as he held up his hands. There was a flash and a loud zapping sound.

"Phantom!" The woman shrieked.

"Step away from the ghost!" The man who had not fired ordered. Phantom, as the woman had called him glared at the man.

Seeing more than enough Gibbs stepped between the two groups. "That is enough!"

"Who are you?" One of the men with the strange weaponry asked.

"You're interfering with a government operation."

Gibbs pulled out his badge. "NCIS. I believe the police report said that this was a murder involving the removal of body parts- which fits the MO of our suspect. So this case falls under our investigation."

"NCIS. Yes. You found ectoplasm in your investigation. Any cases involving the paranormal fall under our jurisdiction. We already filed paperwork to take the case off of your hands-

"Like hell I'll let you do that!" Gibbs snapped. " _Even_ if you didn't _piss_ me off by blatantly _contaminating_ a scene and all but convicting a suspect without _evidence_ you are trying to take the case without talking to me first. I _don't_ like having things stolen from me."

"Protocol clearly dictates-

"Protocol my ass!" Gibbs growled. "All I see is two trigger-happy buffoon's nearly injuring a witness and chasing off another while shouting guilty without any merit!"

The boy blinked at Gibbs clearly shell-shocked. "He's a ghost- he's guilty by default." The white GIW said.

Gibbs felt his fist curl and his jaw tighten. "That's not how this works. I don't care if he's a fucking demon- if you don't have evidence to prove he did it the real killer will kill again. This isn't about pride or superiority or some kind of witch hunt. This is about stopping another death, and if you can't understand that you will never have jurisdiction over this case!" Gibbs glared. "Now get the hell off my crime scene."

The two straitened recognizing authority even if only subconsciously, and began marching toward the door. "This isn't over." The darker skinned GIW said in a whisper.

Gibbs just glared the two down until they were out of sight.

Silence seemed to fill the room in a suffocating manner for several breaths before it was broken by a shaky laugh. "Wow…"

Gibbs turned his attention to the shaking boy who had verbalized his disbelief from where he'd sunk to the ground. The boy was sitting with his legs collapsed in an awkward position and his hands splayed on the ground as if he was barely holding himself up. Gibbs snorted. More like barely holding himself together. The kid had guts sticking around even when he knew the two white bastards were not going to listen to reason. "Now." He said making the boy jump slightly and the woman look at him with guarded eyes. "What happened?"

The two looked at him with a mixture of confusion and shock. "Come." David had made her way into the room and was coaxing the kid into a standing position as she moved him to the couch. She motioned to the woman to follow. Letting out a sigh Gibbs decided to let his team take over the interrogation for the moment. He wasn't always the best at calming people after a stressful situation. "Has the body been examined by a Coroner?" He asked the officer standing in the corner who was looking just as shocked as the witnesses.

Startling to attention the officer stuttered. "Uh- n-no- he's on his way." The man said. "Should be here soon."

Gibbs grumbled. They should have already had them here. It wasn't like they were in another state. Pulling out his phone Gibbs called an old friend. "Do you think you can make it out here?"

Ducky was suturing up a man who had died from a heart attack as he talked to his speakerphone.

He momentarily considered the words. Deciphering what the other man was asking of him. "Well after I finish with Maxwell here, I can be there in about 3 hours."

"Good." Gibbs said. "With everything else going on I need to know I can trust the autopsy."

"It's a bit out of the way." Ducky sighed. "Still, it has been slow around here."

"Wouldn't want you getting rusty." Gibbs quipped as he studied the body, taking extra care not to touch it. Tony was already taking pictures. Blank eye sockets stared back at him tears of blood pulling around the head. Gibbs wasn't sure if it was more or less disturbing that the eyelids seemed to be perfectly intact.

* * *

Authors Notes:

I really wanted to have the GIW involved somehow because how would they not get involved? But it's really hard with the jargon which I skirt around as much as I can because I'm not good at it.

In regards to the GIW filling out reports seemingly before they've even apprehended Danny… The GIW canonically is very strict with paperwork and I imagine that they've got methods of speeding up the process- including filling out paperwork ahead of time for assumed outcomes. (otherwise, I doubt they'd be getting around to even the little they do get to in the show) In fact, they'd only truly arrived a little before the NCIS team and were making assumptions based on the Police reports they were basically stealing.

I spent a good amount of time thinking about how to approach this scene I really didn't want Danny running off… so I had him stay and protect Mikey's Mom. On that note thank you for all the name suggestions! I know that in the last chapter Danny addressed her as Ms. T. but that's easy to change. I like the name's Thorn and Phillips… maybe I'll flip a coin.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter.


End file.
